Tag-line: "There's a price-tag on her kisses ...and trouble was never so cheap!"
This over-plotted Universal-International pot-boiler supposedly exposes the dark side of glamor & fame. It was released the same year as IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (which had a "Shelley-similar" Judy Holliday), but any comedy in PLAYGIRL is purely unintentional.
Shelley Winters plays a sexy city chanteuse who takes childhood chum Colleen Miller under her wing when Miller boards a bus from Nebraska to make it in "The Big Apple". Winters' married lover, publisher Barry Sullivan, takes a shine to Colleen and puts her on the cover of "Glitter" magazine -turning her into the country's top model almost overnight. Colleen and Shelley tussle over Sullivan and a gun ...and he's shot dead. The scandal rocks both Shelley and Colleen's worlds, making them antagonistic adversaries. Worldly-wise Winters hits the bottle and dewy Colleen (who had a hint of "Eve Harrington" about her) becomes a play-for-pay party girl -but when Miller gets set up for a gangster's murder, Shelley's decency shines through. It's an eventual "sadder but wiser" bus trip back for one of them -and nearly too late for the other.
PLAYGIRL is a highly enjoyable film with Shelley Winters at her sexiest and enough sub-plots for 2 of these type films. Shelley even sings a few songs in strapless gowns for jaded nightclub habitués, with "Lie To Me" being the best of them.
Pairing PLAYGIRL with the same year's MAMBO would make a nice "sleeper" double-feature. In the latter, Shelley Winters is very "butch" as Silvana Mangano's manager. MAMBO is actually a musical/melodrama mishmash that looks a lot like THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA combined with PLAYGIRL. I'd like to see it un-cut sometime as the U.S. release print just barely makes sense. The visuals -and Silvana Mangano's production numbers- are still impressive, however.
All highly recommended!
This over-plotted Universal-International pot-boiler supposedly exposes the dark side of glamor & fame. It was released the same year as IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (which had a "Shelley-similar" Judy Holliday), but any comedy in PLAYGIRL is purely unintentional.
Shelley Winters plays a sexy city chanteuse who takes childhood chum Colleen Miller under her wing when Miller boards a bus from Nebraska to make it in "The Big Apple". Winters' married lover, publisher Barry Sullivan, takes a shine to Colleen and puts her on the cover of "Glitter" magazine -turning her into the country's top model almost overnight. Colleen and Shelley tussle over Sullivan and a gun ...and he's shot dead. The scandal rocks both Shelley and Colleen's worlds, making them antagonistic adversaries. Worldly-wise Winters hits the bottle and dewy Colleen (who had a hint of "Eve Harrington" about her) becomes a play-for-pay party girl -but when Miller gets set up for a gangster's murder, Shelley's decency shines through. It's an eventual "sadder but wiser" bus trip back for one of them -and nearly too late for the other.
PLAYGIRL is a highly enjoyable film with Shelley Winters at her sexiest and enough sub-plots for 2 of these type films. Shelley even sings a few songs in strapless gowns for jaded nightclub habitués, with "Lie To Me" being the best of them.
Pairing PLAYGIRL with the same year's MAMBO would make a nice "sleeper" double-feature. In the latter, Shelley Winters is very "butch" as Silvana Mangano's manager. MAMBO is actually a musical/melodrama mishmash that looks a lot like THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA combined with PLAYGIRL. I'd like to see it un-cut sometime as the U.S. release print just barely makes sense. The visuals -and Silvana Mangano's production numbers- are still impressive, however.
All highly recommended!